Pilots' Raises To Total 9% By 2001

March 20, 1997

Negotiators for American Airlines and its pilots were to meet in Washington Thursday to continue talks in hopes of presenting a proposed contract to the pilots union board on Friday. The tentative agreement announced Wednesday calls for the pilots to receive raises totaling 9 percent over the life of the contract, through 2001, and a number of stock options, according to sources familiar with the talks who spoke only on condition of anonymity. The company would end within four years a second-tier wage scale adopted in the early 1980s. A key sticking point has been the dispute over who will fly small jets that American plans to use to replace turboprops now used on American Eagle commuter flights. Neither side would discuss details of the proposal.